TO KARL RADEK

Published:First published in 1930 inLenin Miscellany XIII.

      Sent from Paris to Leipzig.

      Printed from the original.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1971,

      Moscow,Volume 36,

      pages172-173.Translated:Andrew RothsteinTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive.You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work, as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.

September 30, 1910

WerterGenosse,

Excuseme for this delay in replying to your two letters.
I returned to Paris only the other
day,[4]and was unable
to reply earlier.

Asregards an article for the C.O. on the disarmament
resolution of the Copenhagen Congress, it was ordered (back
in Copenhagen) and written by another contributor.
Unfortunately, your proposal came too late.

Asto inserting your article in the next issue, I must
have a talk with Warski and another member of the editorial
board. I shall do this.

Concerningyour leading articles inLeipziger
Volkszeitung, I must say that the question is very interesting, but
I have not studied it at length, and it seems to me that
theoretically you are not quite right. The criterion of what
is “impracticable within the framework of capitalism”
should not be taken in the sense that the bourgeoisie will
not allow it, that it cannot be achieved, etc. In that sense,
very many demands in our minimum programme are “
impracticable”, but are none the less obligatory.

Then,when mentioning the Inaugural Address of the
International, you omit from your quotation Marx’s words
about the principles of relations between
states.[5]Is not
that a “minimum programme” in foreign policy? And
finally, why do you say nothing about Engels’s “Kann
Europa
abrüsten?”[1]?

Youare quite right, in my opinion (all this is my
personal opinion, of course), that it is impossible to leave out
the demand to arm the people. Wouldn’t it be more correct
to concentrate your fire not on the fact thatAbrüstung[2]is written into the resolution, but thatVolkswehr[3]is
not?

Iwant to reply to Martov and Trotsky inNeue Zeit.
I have already written to Kautsky and asked him whether
they would carry it and how long it could be. It is also
necessary of course to reply inLeipziger Volkszeitung.

Bestwishes,Yours,Lenin

[1]“CanEurope Disarm?”—Ed.

[2]Disarmament.—Ed.

[3]Armingthe people.—Ed.

[4]OnSeptember 28, 1910, Lenin returned to Paris from Copenhagen
where he had stayed after the Eighth International Socialist
Congress of the Second International and from where he had goneto Stockholm to visit his mother, M. A. Ulyanova, and his sister,
M. I. Ulyanova.

[5]KarlRadek, in quoting the Inaugural Address of the Working
Men’s International Association, omitted the words of Marx to
the effect that in the event of it being impossible to prevent the
diplomatic activity of one’s government, the working class must
“combine in simultaneous denunciation, and indicate the simple
laws of morals and justice, which ought to govern the relations
of private individuals, as the rules paramount of the intercourse of
nations” =

(see Marx and Engels,Selected Works, Vol. I, p. 385).